1. Field of Invention
The field of the currently claimed embodiments of this invention relates to systems and methods of acquiring and displaying information during surgical procedures, and more particularly to systems and methods of acquiring and displaying information that include visual tracking of surgical instruments and annotation of information displayed.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Currently surgeons use a number of intraoperative diagnostic and surgical and/or treatment devices for operating on small tissue regions, e.g., laparoscopic ultrasound and/or RF ablation devices. The surgeon observes the device's position relative to the anatomy through a video feed. In the case of diagnostic instruments, the surgeon has to note this position and the imaging results and track this location with the anatomy over time. Over time, the surgeon may want to revisit particular anatomy for an intervention or inspection. If the surgeon does not recall or is not sure about the location or the content of a prior diagnostic image associated with a particular area, the diagnostic device might have to be reintroduced to the operating field, which is time consuming. In the case of surgical devices, the surgeon has to map the already treated area relative to some visible landmarks. This is difficult when the treatment is inside the target tissue, or does not alter the tissue's appearance. Missed, over treated or incorrect treatment locations are to be avoided. The surgeon may choose to inspect or treat a number of anatomical regions, which could be sparsely located, e.g. 10 landmarks. This adds to cognitive load on the surgeon in an already challenging minimally invasive procedure. Furthermore, the anatomy may deform, or change color naturally, or from the intervention itself, which adds to the difficulty of tracking the relevant landmarks and associated intraoperative information.
In the case of vitroretinal surgery, for example, it has been very rare to interrogate the retina with intraocular imaging probes. However, with the discovery of new real time intraoperative imaging modalities (GRIN lens endoscopes, spectroscopy, ultrasound, optical coherence tomography (OCT)), compatible probes and multifunction instruments, new surgical techniques may be possible. These new technologies image tissue at very close distances and very small volumes. The resulting data is sparsely located, requiring the surgeon to track multiple scans or images with the corresponding anatomical locations in the microscope view, which adds significant cognitive load to the already challenging surgical task. This can become more difficult with altered anatomy due to surgical manipulation, bleeding, bio-markers, swelling as well as inherent changes in the field of view, lighting methods and/or directions and intraocular fluid conditions.
There thus remains the need for improved visual tracking and annotation systems and methods for surgical intervention.